Subramanian Swamy: From Sonia to Sangh

He can put even the Sangh’s loony fringe to shame with his unabashed Hindutva rant and embarrass the BJP still cagey about its core ideology. Taking on the high and mighty across the political spectrum with chilling regularity, Subramanian Swamy may now just be a breath away from merging his one-man Janata Party with the Modi-fied BJP.

And he has a blueprint ready for BJP to storm back to power. Recently Swamy expounded his strategy, which is both intriguing and bone-chilling — consolidate the Hindu vote, divide the Muslims.

"India is 80% Hindu. If we rally the Hindu vote and wean away 7% of the Muslim population to our side, we will win the elections. There are sharp divisions in the community. The Shias, Barelvis and Ahmadis are already aligned with the BJP. There’s nothing called a consolidated Muslim vote-bank. Look at the brutal persecution of Shias in Pakistan. The strategy should be clear. Unite the Hindus under one flag and divide the Muslims."

But, the NDA cannot capture power on its own. With a polarizing figure like Modi at the helm, BJP remains an untouchable for its former allies — BJD, Trinamool Congress and TDP. Swamy is quick to rebut this theory. “Don’t forget, Naidu, Mamata and Patnaik joined the NDA bandwagon just after the Ayodhya movement and the Babri demolition. It’s all about coming close to the magic figure. The wind is blowing in NDA’s favour.” he said. And while party president Rajnath Singh does a deft balancing act on Hindutva, Swamy minces no words on espousing the Ayodhya plank. “If Modi becomes PM, the Ram temple will definitely be built in Ayodhya. There’s no going back on this issue. We will take the legal route and convince Muslims. The temple was always on BJP’s agenda and Ayodhya was a rallying point for the NDA in 1998.”

Swamy may now be a darling of the Sangh, but he remains a political paradox, having swiftly switched political allegiances in the past.

Netas will get the boot if convicted in criminal case – Really!

It will be termed as historic judgment of the Supreme Court. But the question is will a ‘real’ neta ever get convicted in a criminal case? The fact: The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict ruled that a lawmaker convicted in a criminal case will lose the membership of either Parliament or state Assembly as the case may be the moment he or she gets convicted.

The Truth: The irony is our netas would hardly get convicted in non-criminal case, so a criminal case is out of the question. Corruption/disproportionate income cases against many netas are languishing in various courts across the country without any end in sight. And to get conviction in a criminal case – like rape, murder, kidnapping, smuggling - is rather difficult. Sanjay Dutt got conviction in Bombay bomb blast full 21 years after the bloody attack on the megapolis. Mind you that the case was followed by the media all throughout, the world was watching it and it had the imprint of country’s most wanted terrorist – Dawood bhai. And the fact of the matter is he got into jail for possessing weapons illegally not for terrorism or the actual bomb blasts. When Vikas Yadav and company couldn’t get a conviction in the Jessica Lal murder case, the model who was killed in a full blown party attended by even top cops, does it look like that the courts can do it.

Theoretically speaking, it’s a good judgment of the apex court. However, not being cynical, only the weak netas or who would be caught napping or would not be able to bribe their way through or one who has run out of luck, would be impacted by this landmark judgment. It wouldn’t stop the neta fielding his wife or daughter of son or daughter in-law.

What it does – the court gets browine points, the netas will have to shell more in criminal cases and the press will get something to write home about. What we need is killing of so many evils and million lacunae plaguing the system and removing the rotten apples that we may not see the country bloom during my life time. I hope I die early.

PS: The Government is likely to appeal against the Supreme Court order as it feels the ruling will lead to political witch hunting. Political parties, too, have been resisting change on the ground that ruling dispensations bring false charges out of political vendetta to keep rivals out of election process.

Box office: 1448 MPs/MLAs have criminal cases pending against them.

641 MPs/legislators have ongoing criminal cases like rape, murder etc against them.

6 MPs/legislators have declared rape charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

141 MPs/legislators have declared murder charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

352 MPs/legislators have declared attempt to murder charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

145 MPs/legislators have declared theft charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

90 MPs/legislators have declared kidnapping charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

75 MPs/legislators have declared dacoity charges in the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.

162 MPs in Lok Sabha have criminal cases pending against them.

75 MPs have serious criminal charges against them.

Source: National Election Watch & ADR